


Neighbors

by Ashiepants



Series: Head Over Feet [1]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: F/M, Hospital, Neighbors, Romance, cuteness, new relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-01-27
Packaged: 2018-04-13 23:15:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4541157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashiepants/pseuds/Ashiepants
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sonny meets his downstairs neighbor. Finally, as far as she's concerned.</p><p>(rewritten/expanded edition, if you read this prior please reread, it's new!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Neighbors

**Author's Note:**

> So I originally wrote and posted this so long ago it's a relic. It was written quick and sloppy and since I never intended to keep writing this 120,000 words down the line I didn't care much.  
> But it's bugged me so I rewrote it, because it's mine and I can do what I want, lol.  
> It's worlds better, no more gross first person, and 10x more Sonny. I hope you like this

"Ey, did anyone talk to Miss Parrish before we got here?" Sonny Carisi's accent was ridiculous, and belied his position as a New York City detective. 

The nurse at the desk looked up from her chart with surprise. Recognition filled her green eyes. Maybe he hadn't noticed. He probably didn't. He always looked busy and full of "very important business" to attend to. She noticed him though, making all the noise in the world as he arrived home at nearly 1am every night. She lived in the same building he did across the river in Brooklyn. 

At first, she thought he had some kind of problem but then saw him in the elevator with a backpack and a Fordham law sweatshirt, a night-schooler. She saw him before that in dark suits he had no way of affording and slowly pieced him together. She probably romanticized his detective during the day, law student at night, too much product, always sends his Chinese to the wrong apartment lifestyle, but she had formed a sad little crush on him. Sad because she never bullied up the courage to talk to him herself. Not that she was the shy type, Sonny was just always in motion. 

It wasn't too much to ask for her upstairs neighbor to make the connection that he'd seen this nurse before, right? Still he looked directly at her and asked again without a hint of recognition. 

"Anybody at all? Might make her think twice about pressing charges."

She shook her head. "No. I mean there's a thousand people here. But I didn't see anybody with her. Why?"

"She's being skiddish now. Won't say a word."

"Well she's scared." The nurse explained. "I can see if she'll talk to-"

"Nevermind, I'll-" he started to walk away. 

"Wait," she signaled. "Lemme shuffle some patients find her a more private place."

"You could do that?" He looked surprised and grinned at her. "Dat would be awesome. The sooner we get her statement-"

"The sooner you get out of here and out of my life." She smiled a tiny bit, still looking at the charts in front of her. "Maybe I'll obstruct justice a minute longer."

Sonny's eyes widened. She looked up at him surprised at herself and her obvious flirting. The first time she gets the chance to actually talk to her cute elusive neighbor and she jokes about keeping him from catching a rapist. 

"Well...uh." Sonny started. 

"I'm sorry. Let me get that room." She came around the counter and pushed past him. 

Sonny just watched her walk away.  
***  
"She's in here." The dark haired nurse motioned with her hands. 

Sonny looked her up and down quickly. Noting that she still looked a little embarrassed about what she had told him a few minutes earlier about obstructing justice. He smiled slightly, not used to such bold and overt flirting. 

"Thanks!" Mike Dodds nodded to her and went past Sonny into the exam room the nurse had found for their victim. 

Sonny lingered on her a second longer wondering if she was new or if he had just never seen her. Mercy wasn't the only hospital he frequented. They began to blur together after awhile. Dodds made an impatient noise from the exam room and Sonny quickly followed him inside. 

He faced the victim. She was young, with down turned but bright blue eyes. They had already put her clothes in the rape kit, so she wore baggy loner clothes the hospital provided. He wouldn't look Sonny or Dodds in the eye. Sonny frowned. The room was quieter than the curtained off area she was in previously, but you could still hear the unmistakable beeps and whistles associated with an urban emergency room. Sonny hated to think about her being swabbed and inspected with just a curtain between her and humanity. It was no wonder she suddenly didn't feel like talking to the two detectives. 

"This a little better, Miss Parrish?" He asked softly. 

She nodded vaguely. 

"Can you tell us what happened?" Dodds asked. 

Sonny frowned at his less than gentle manner. "We know you told the hospital staff already but we need to hear it from you, you understand?"

She nodded again and looked up to look Sonny in the eye.  
****  
As they exited the room, leaving Miss Parrish with the promise that they'd do everything they could to find her attacker. Sonny noticed that same nurse not far at the nurses station, furiously making notes and half rolling her eyes at a doctor with sandy blonde hair who was giving her orders. He walked away after a wink and a smile in her direction. She nodded after him and then her smile faded as she announced loudly to another nearby nurse that she was going on a break. 

Sonny smirked to himself as the doctor who had treated their victim approached them. 

"Malucci." He introduced himself. "Are you done with her?"

Dodds nodded. "We have what we need for now. She said she lives in a group home?"

Malucci nodded. "Yeah these girls come in a lot."

"Are dey all raped?" Sonny looked appalled. 

The doctor shook his head. "No usually just sick, severely dehydrated. No one is taking care of them over there, they're still basically children."

Sonny and Mike both nodded. 

Sonny clapped Malucci's shoulder, "thanks Dr. Malucci."

"I'll get her some follow-up in the psych clinic, you just go shoot the bastard."

Dodds smirked. "Ya that's the job."

They left the doctor and continued down the hall.

"We should really thank dat nurse."

"The looker?" Mike looked at Sonny with mild amusement. 

"What?"

"Nothin', I'm gonna get the rape kit you say goodbye to your nurse."

Sonny rolled his eyes. Sure maybe he had checked her out but this was a professional curtesy, one civil servant to another, so to speak. She had gone out of her way to help them. He glanced around the floor but didn't see her, but then remembered her loud announcement about going on break. That hadn't been for his benefit, right?

"Hey there a place to take a break around here?" He asked a janitor busy taking trash. 

"Yeah some vending machines down dat way, man" he shook his head. "But that coffee is terrible. Best go ta da Starbucks down da street!"

"Yeah, noted." Sonny quickly went off in the direction of the vending machines. 

She was standing with her back to him tapping her foot impatiently trying to decide which snack to choose. Sonny tried not to look her over again. This wasn't a personal call. 

"Hey, dere you are!" He greeted a tad too exuberantly. 

"Yes." She turned almost slowly as if testing if this was real. 

"Ey, I didn't properly introduce myself earlier, Detective Dominick Carisi, Jr. You can call me Sonny."

She grinned and took the hand he offered to her, returning with a nice solid handshake. "I'm nurse Alex McClure. You can call me Alex."

She shut her eyes in embarrassment. Sonny just smiled. 

"I just wanted to thank you, Alex. She was a lot more comfortable. We got her statement easy peesy. I just know we can be a pain in the ass. All demanding and...thanks."

"It's my job too. To care for patients you know?" She answered and turned back to the coffee machine, punching in numbers for her choice. 

Sonny watched her movements and appreciated her form once more, swallowed by teal scrubs. He did what he came to do but it felt unfinished. Maybe it was because she dismissed his thank you so quickly. Maybe he wasn't here to say thanks. 

"Yeah...right." He stumbled over his words, the nerves beginning to hit. He put his hands in his pockets to combat the feeling. "Look, why don't I buy you a real cup of coffee?"

"Don't you have a case to solve?" She spun around no longer feeling anxious, but her cheeks pink. 

He was caught off guard by her facing him again. "Yeah. Sure. I mean a cup of coffee some time...when were not busy."

"You're always busy though aren't you?" She asked, with a knowing smile. This was her chance. 

"Not always..." 

She smirked and turned to grab her finished coffee from the slot in the vending machine. "You really don't remember me, huh?"

Sonny searched his memory. "Oh...oh my god were you a vic before. Victim!"

Goddamnit, Sonny, you're an idiot. 

"No dumb dumb, I live in your building. Right below you." She swirled the coffee cup with her wrist. 

"Wait, really?" He softened. "I don't think I've ever seen you."

"No you wouldn't." Alex rolled her eyes. "Always running around, getting home late, showering at 4am"

Sonny grimaced "Sorry I'm a nuisance."

He thought about his building a second. Could this cute nurse live there and him not see her? "Wait, maybe I did see you before. Did I send Chinese to your place?"

"Only like 3 times." She shook her head with a laugh. "You tip well, though."

"I'm sorry. Wow. What a doofus." He shook his head too and grinned wide. Alex chewed her lip looking at his deep dimples. 

He was far softer than she had imagined he'd be, but she never thought she'd ever actually talk to him. It wasn't even like her to have a crush. He continued to smile at her, unsure how to proceed. 

"Well," she stepped close to him and placed her hand on his chest. "If you're ever NOT busy...stop by my place and we can walk to the cafe on the corner." 

Sonny's heart was beating fast. She wasn't shy now. He had to admit that her practically asking him out was a turn on. 

"See ya Sonny. I gotta get back to nursing." She grinned again and sipped her coffee. 

She walked down the hall. Sonny released breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. It wasn't often he met girls that flirted with him like that. Or at least that weren't completely inappropriate for him to flirt back with. 

"Bye Alex. I'm gonna remember you next time!" He called after her. "We are neighbors after all."  
****  
Back at the precinct Sonny couldn't stop thinking about that nurse, Alex. Did she really live in his building and he'd never seen her? She was pretty enough he was sure he would've remembered the way she filled out those scrubs. The building was a little soulless. It wasn't as if he knew any of his neighbors or paid them any attention. He vaguely remembered her dropping off Chinese in the middle of a huge study session. He was kicking himself. What if he had looked up and saw the pretty nurse? Would he have even made a move? Or would she? 

She was the one flirting with him at the hospital, wasn't she? The way she put her hand on his chest before she walked away made his heart beat fast even though it happened hours ago, now. He shook his head feeling a little ridiculous for believing in the electricity of her touch. 

"That's stupid." He muttered. 

"Are you talking to yourself, Carisi?" Rollins smirked a few feet over. 

He turned a little pink. "I'm good."  
****  
He was still thinking about Alex later when he got into his building. He wondered which apartment she was in. He was sure he'd seen another guy living next door to him, so he didn't think she lived that close. 

Ever the detective he went to the bank of mailboxes to dig. Several boxes weren't marked at all. He frowned hoping she wasn't in one of those. Then he saw A. McClure on box 38. She really did live below him, directly. He wondered how much of his life she'd overheard. Considering how much he heard from next door and up above it had to be a lot. He felt a little exposed. Had he done anything embarrassing, like sing along to pop songs while cleaning the house.

He took the stairs up stopping on the 3rd floor and wondering if she was home now. Could he buy her that cup of coffee? Did he even have money to buy someone else coffee? 

He fumbled for his phone and checked his banking app. He wasn't completely penniless yet this week. He could afford a meal. He stowed his phone and convinced himself to try. 

_'If she's not home, she's not home._ ' He bargained. ' _Back to your original plan of making some dinner, reading for class, and maybe masturbate_.'

He laughed at himself. _'I plan when I'm gonna jerk off now?'_

He previously shared his apartment with a roommate, a friend from Staten Island who didn't work out almost immediately. Trying to have a girl over or get a minute to yourself in a 1 bedroom apartment was torture, but after he kicked him out the real torture was paying rent on his own. Though he liked having his own space. 

He walked down the hall noting the door numbers. He stopped at 38. It didn't look unlike the doors beside it, not that he expected anything. He wondered if she had a 1 bedroom as well. Did she have a roommate? He felt nervous. He hadn't even been on a date in going on 6 months. He was trying to finish up his law school program and since moving to SVU he'd been non-stop. He didn't have time for a love life. Maybe it was time that changed. 

_'Yeah, buy her coffee and she's gonna fall in love with you.'_ Sonny wasn't a fool, it probably would only ever be coffee. Just because someone flirts with you doesn't mean much of anything. 

He knocked finally and waited patiently. He rocked on his heels and looked at the door with what he hoped was a friendly open face, in case she looked through her peep hole. He hoped she did and didn't just open the door to strangers. After a few long minutes he got no response. 

He was a little relieved. Eager as he was to see her again, he was actually nervous she'd be there. 

Next time. He told himself and took the stairs up to the 4th floor.


End file.
